Tag Archives: Photography

One Man's Paradise

Living with bears

Frost

It must have been a lean year for the bears around here. A dismal blueberry harvest makes for hungry bears in the Interior. For more than a week grizzlies and black bears have been roaming through our little hamlet, searching for any food scraps or things that look like it. Outdoor BBQs were overturned, so were potted herbs. Even bear-proof trash cans were attacked. I have seen bears on my front porch in the middle of night. Not a comforting sound to hear scratching claws…. They could easily break into the cabin. The bears have become increasingly destructive. Not a good sign. One more month before they go into hibernation. If they keep roaming through the village, destroying property, ignoring human presence, they will get destroyed.

That’s life in the Arctic.

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One Man's Paradise

Surf’s Up

A winter storm advisory was in effect this weekend. Luckily it did not come with tornadoes. However, warning signs had been posted along the main highway: “Stay at home if possible”. Well, for some of us the opposite applies. A winter storm often brings a good swell to the ocean and that means surf is up. 5 foot swells were predicted and the forecast did not disappoint. Water temperature: 42 F, air temperature: 6 F. Does that mean the photographer was colder than the surfers? Not sure. It seems daring to me to jump into the ocean before sunrise, wait for a good wave to form, ride for 30 seconds or less knowing that you will eat it at the end. Anyways, great fun to watch.

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One Man's Paradise

50 Shades of Blue

The notion that there are 50 words for snow in the Inuit-Yupik languages has been discredited, although it makes complete sense to me to that language vocabulary reflects the speaker’s view of the World. Anyways, I think there should be 50 words for Blue, at least in the Arctic. On a sunny winter day the sky is reflected in the snow, which results in many hues of Blue.

“If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue.”

Paul Gauguin

At the same token, on overcast days, we get 50 shades of Gray (no pun intended).

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One Man's Paradise

Bluebird Days

Skiers refer to a bluebird day as a beautiful sunny day, often after an overnight snowfall. What did the bluebirds have to do with this? Bluebirds are a group of brightly colored birds in the thrush family, native to the Americas. Apparently the Iroquois believed their call could chase away Sawiskera, the spirit of winter.

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.”

Henry David Thoreau

Anyways, bluebird days are always welcome in my books. And it is not even winter yet…

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One Man's Paradise

Koviashuvik №2

“Koviashuvik is not what it was when we first moved into the Wilderness of the Brooks Range. We did not know what to expect because we had never spent a winter alone in the Arctic. We thought we knew what to expect but there is a difference between knowing and knowing. Yes there is a difference between knowing that the temperature will drop to sixty degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit scale, and knowing there will be no direct sunlight for nearly three months, and knowing a steady fire is necessary in the Yukon stove to keep a 12 by 12 foot log cabin warm. This we knew, but we did not know how good it was the way we know now, which is why we call it Koviashuvik.”

Sam Wright

I can relate to that. I spent last winter in a small cabin in the Brooks Range, North of the Arctic Circle. It was indeed a time and place of joy. Not the loud, exuberant joy of the city, but more the quiet, powerful kind. Nature would dominate my days. Needed to gather snow and melt it for drinking water (and washing dishes), keep the furnace going so my cabin would be livable, catch every sun ray I could and wait for the Northern lights.

So simple. The picture above was taken on one of those nights. The moon was so bright it would cast shadows of the trees in the snow. The Northern lights were out, but they were muted by the moonlight. Nevertheless, they performed their silent dance.

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